Excess baggage

Netnet Camomot

FOOD usually has an immediate effect. I had a bowl of dinuguan for Monday’s lunch, and–voila!–more pounds added to the excess body weight.

Excess na gani, nadugangan pa gyud. Unsaon na lang!

If this were baggage at the airport, imagine the amount to be paid for the excess.

The secret to life must be to have enough. Simply enough for whatever it is intended for. Because the excess will only end up as excess–won’t be appreciated anymore. Have you ever tried devouring another bowl of dinuguan after finishing the first bowl of dinuguan? That kind of excess–you’re forcing yourself to eat, instead of savoring each bite.

That’s why the need to stare at the green trees outside the window, listen to the birds chirping, and if their chirping sounds like your tummy growling, it is indeed your tummy growling.

And it’s while you’re staring at the trees and starting to notice the sun’s rays rising to its ultimate 12-noon strength that you remember it’s summer. Good thing the rash guard is now in–no need to expose the spare tires and fatty arms. But what to do with the lower part of the body? One word: boardshorts. Or should that be two words: bored shorts–will make men bored when they see less skin and legs of the female kind.

The rash guard and bored, er, boardshorts were once meant for surfing and other water sports. Nowadays, the rash guard has become a necessity to protect the skin from sunburn, with the swimsuit used only for, hmmm, Facebook posts. Or for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue which reminds that only a huge pair of “babies” can qualify.

There was a time when Pinays would wear T-shirts and shorts while swimming at the beach, which might have inspired question marks to hover above foreign tourists who visit the country to swim, dive, or surf. And those tourists are now again asking why Pinays are hiding themselves in rash guards and boardshorts. No, it’s not the Maria Clara effect. It’s the sun.

If you want to avoid the sun, stay indoors and continue staring at the trees.

Summer is also the time to relax, with no pressure for the body to dive into all bodies of water. You may take this as an opportunity to lose the excess weight since summer has lesser pressure at work, with students and teachers even having their much-needed break from theses and lesson plans. Unless your work’s fiscal year ends on June 30.

And if you dive into a healthy weight-loss program today, you can then finally squeeze into a swimsuit next summer. Nice, eh? One year to lose the excess the healthy way since rapid weight loss can only make you look rabid.

If water is not your favorite sport, then you can sip a glass of lemonade while cocooned in a hammock under the tree. It’s bliss to think of nothing but that lemonade and the hammock and the rustling of leaves.

A picnic on top of a mountain or, if you have acrophobia, a hill is also good for people who don’t like water that much. There must be a guru there who can impart wisdom and good counsel, for a mountain can have many trails that may lead you to bad choices, so, better ask the guru first before making that first step.

Or the guru could be your own gut. Listen to what it’s saying. If it growls, then that’s your tummy, not the gut.

Most of the time, though, the gut does not even have to say anything. There are signs, many signs, to the path that you should take. The rule is to be aware, and not to ignore hints otherwise you’ll miss the first one that was supposed to stop you already at that point.

By merely walking along the trails, you will have eureka moments–Aha!–that make you wonder why you had not thought of them before. But the peace and quiet does inspire you to look into yourself, and to ponder on the hows and whys.

Christmas is so over, Lent is so over, too. But it’s never too late to ponder and wonder. If only that can also be applied on the diet.